Light Where None Exists

At the close of the investigation into Sam’s cold-blooded murders with his wraith friend, the group was knighted as Syntharis’ own detectives. They were making plans to head south into Corinth before their ceremony was finished. The released prisoner, Kazul, decided to travel with the group. They stocked up on food and rations and headed out toward Corinth. About half of the way there and there knocked out and they woke up in different room, almost bare and naked. They each had their own room that were designed to mess with them. After searching around building they began to be attack by an abomination, which ended up bring them all back together, together while over coming the fear of this hideous beast they were able to beat it, some were in severe conditions luckily an unnamed bottle saved their lives. After reforming their party they began to search the castle once more, after a while of walking they walked through a room when it went dark and reappeared again with the room filled with water. They heard splashes of water off in the distance, when they looked they found tentacles pulling back to reveal a terrible monster. After once again almost dying from this encounter, they collected the look and headed off. They appeared in a very large room once again filled with water. Almost immediately Duadexa jumped on a set of barrels and began to walk from barrel to barrel keeping a hand on the wall for support. Out of no where the noise of someone or something walking through the water began to approach them. Whatever it was began to attack and disappear, after a while of fighting the beast grappled Rose and Gagaso trying to save her tried to grapple back, it didn’t work, so more and more of the party pilled on with no effect. Mean while Duadexa, being the elf that she is, pushed in a pressure plate that lead to a room full Bliss Motes swarmed over her and the nearby Jesis, as they became swarmed with these frey they felt extremely good, luckly Jesis fell into the water and they flew off of him. (to be continued)

Two weeks later, the group, sitting at the inn’s central table enjoying some of Otik’s delicious spiced potatoes (ah!), they noticed a new bard trying his luck at the art of music. The room was lively with the young man’s skill, but, as Kay decided, not quite lively enough. As the bard’s music reached a crescendo, Kay leaped out onto the stage and began a dance, matching his movements perfectly with the bard’s melody. The two, whilst working together, made roughly twice their normal daily wage, and Kay invited the young bard to sit with his group.

The bard introduced himself as Jet Voidweller, a young adventurer like the group, who was looking to make a name for himself in Syntharis. Little did the young bard know, however, his speaking to the group would set in motion several events that would change his life forever. When Kay joined in on the merriment, the nightmares began to follow him as well.

Gagaso claimed to dislike the bard, but actually meant it in a benevolent and kind way. As the bard, ranger, and rogue were about to begin a second performance, this time with one of Gagaso’s impromptu stories, the door was slammed open by a tall, gaunt man wearing black clerical vestments. He roared in rage at the audience and stalked off down the street, drawing his hood up as he did so.

“Ah, Sam,” remarked one of the patrons, setting his ale on the table with a hearty belch. “That man, I swear to the gods, is touched in the head. He’s always been abnormally angry, but I reckon that the boy, ever since he find himself a god to worship, whate’er that god may be, has been nuthin’ but trouble. Why, once he broke into me shack at three o’ the mornin’ and yelled at me to repent my ‘sins’ or some other malarkey. I dunno, but that boy sure ain’t right in the head.”

The group, a bit disturbed by the malice in the man’s eyes, and, more importantly, the strange symbol that had been left on the door by the man’s mace. A sun with a crescent moon eclipsing it, like the one they had seen at the mausoleum, had been left, in perfect effigy, on the wooden doorframe.

Presently, the group was approached by the guards of the town, who, having heard of their exploits in saving the children and the family tomb, wanted to state a sentiment of their own. Over the course of the last few weeks, several people had been found dead in several districts throughout the city. These deaths did not seem to be linked, and they happened almost every night. One of the guards was reported saying “Ya better be gettin’ yer hands dirty with this. It’s like the guys just up and dropped dead. No sign of what killed em’ or why. It’s just the strangest thing we’ve seen in a while here.”

The group, spearheaded by Kay, agreed to assist in the ongoing investigation. The group’s first scene was a small group of four young sailor men along the wharf. The men, indeed, seemed to have just dropped dead, save only for the looks of utter terror stricken across their faces. While this in itself was strange, there seemed to be writing on one of the walls just to the left of the eldest man. Most of it was unintelligible, but held some kind of cohesive message. “I didn’t mean to… 1397…. We were just looking… please help us….” were some of the scrawlings along that one wall.

The group had barely any time to ponder these markings when Jet spotted several humanoid shapes appear out of the mist. These shapes held uncanny likeness to the recently dead men, and they rushed forward with nothing but a simple moan. Jesis noted that the creatures were not corporeal, and called out to the group as they charged: “They’re not in this plane! But something anchors them here!”

Indeed, Gagaso’s first arrow flew straight through the creature’s forehead and clattered harmlessly across the ground. The battle erupted, and [[;kay-3 | Kay]] was stuck apart from the group. The rest began to slowly kill the creatures, but Kay, isolated, was overwhelmed and the monster drained him of all his strength. The beast was about to deliver the killing blow, when Gagaso shot it through the forehead with his Skirmish attack. The beasts disappeared, and the group quickly searched the area before leaving. Duadexa swore that she saw another shape disappear within the mist as they left the scene. She felt a bone-chilling creep go up her spine, and she suddenly felt afraid for the friends she had made within the town as of so far.

Duadexa’s fears were realized the next night, when one of her friends did indeed turn up dead, along with three others. The group’s investigation turned up more scrawl on the walls. “I wasn’t in on it… Please help me… I’m sorry… I was only curious… It was on the wharf…”
As the group began to read these writings, they were again assaulted by wraiths. This time, however, the wraiths had a strange likeness to the recently dead. The group went home, scared and traumatized at these uncanny likenesses.
(To be continued…)

The group, having been plagued with terrible dreams for over a month, and losing sleep all the time because of it, were receiving treatment at the local temple when they heard of a woman who had lost her child. Apparantly it was the seventeenth child to go missing in over seven months. Gagaso, being a kind ranger, offered to search for these missing children. The woman told him where they were last seen — in a field just outside the city walls.
The forest rested just outside the walls as well, and Gagaso and the group began their search there. A few Search checks turned up footprints that were out of the norm. The children normally never strayed closer than fifteen paces to the trees, but there were several groups of footprints that lead directly into the forest. Further investigation revealed a game trail, recently trod upon, by children’s feet.
The group gathered their materials and went into the woods, following Gagaso’s lead. The tracks took them along a winding pathway, where, eventually, all forest sounds stopped. Everyone felt an uneasy chill settle over the world as they ventured further and further into the forest. The pathway grew more and more narrow, and, once, Kay could have sworn he heard a little girl scream in the distance.
It took them over a distance of seventeen miles, but the group eventually came out into a clearing next to a small lake, fed by a small creek off of the main river. The lake smelled of brimstone, and the group naturally gave it a wide berth. At the top of a hill on the opposite side of the lake, a small cottage sat, with smoke coming out of its chimneys.
The unnatural air grew ever more powerful as the group approached, and by the time they arrived at the cottage, everyone knew not to make a sound. Gagaso checked the window, sneaking as well as his ranger skills could allow him to. Inside, he saw a group of eight children gathered around a table, with an elderly woman at the end, and a man clad in black jester clothing standing in a doorway. As the group watched, they saw a small, 10-year-old girl tied and naked on the table. She looked entirely alive, and her chest moved up and down, showing that she had life.
As the group watched, the children, now armed with forks and knives, began to cut bits and pieces off of the little girl! The girl showed no signs of surprise, fear, or pain, and just rested, almost as if she wasn’t about to bleed out. The group watched in horror as the children lined up and fed the quivering, still-dripping pieces of the little girl, one by one, to the old lady!
She licked her chops and devoured the small child, laughing daintily as she did so. Gagaso’s reaction was to motion to Kay, and then draw his bow. The two aimed carefully, one for the old woman, and one for the jester. They released the arrows as the woman went into a fit of cackling and the jester joined in. Kay released his arrow toward the jester, and it caught him in the windpipe. His eyes widened in surprise as the life left them. The woman took the arrow to the shoulder and cried out in pain. The children turned, eyes glowing a malicious yellow, and brandished their knives.Gagaso broke the window and leapt into the room, attacking the old lady with another arrow. Jesis and Duadexa entered the house through the doorway. Jesis attempted to calm the children as Gagaso and Kay chased the old lady out of her own house.
The children reacted by attacking the cleric. Jesis, taken by surprise, was slashed across his torso with one of the children’s knives. Duadexa, reacting quickly, cast fascinate. Everyone in the room stopped for a moment, and it was just enough for Jesis to cast his version of the same spell. The children and Duadexa were now under Jesis’ control. The woman fled, and the group gathered the children and ferried them back into the town.
Several hours passed getting there, but Jesis had a good enough grip on the children’s minds that they did not fall out of his influence. The first thing the group did when they got back was bring the children to the same temple in which they had been receiving treatment.
The priests did not know what to do. The children were being controlled by some malevolent force, that much was obvious, but they did not know exactly what. They tried everything, from excorcism to healing, and nothing worked. It was Jesis who came up with the idea that they could use the spell Restoration.
The spell worked miracles, and the children were quickly restored to their normal, bright-eyed selves. Their minds, however, could not forget what they had done, and the children of the district are now much more silent and reserved than they used to be.

Upon arrival at Otik‘s Inn the group was set upon by a waylaid young man by the name of Finnick. He spun a tale of how his family Mausoleum was haunted —or so he thought. At night, strange sounds would be heard coming from the mausoleum. Being too afraid to open it and check it out himself, he hires the group to look into it. Kay jumps on the opportunity at the first mention of reward. Gagaso was willing to help out of the kindness of his heart. The rest of the group agreed, and they set out for the city’s graveyard as the sun began to set.
The atmosphere around the mausoleum was dismal; the sun did not shine on it. Gagaso, curious as to why, looked up and saw an eclipse. The moon, silhouetted against the bright sun, appeared black and cast the shadow over the mausoleum. He didn’t know why, but the eclipse sent a shiver up his spine. He knew this wasn’t going to end well.
The sun set, and the darkness seemed to radiate from the mausoleum, enveloping all else around it. The darkness seemed more complete tonight than normal, and the mausoleum stuck out as the darkest object. Around 11pm, the group began hearing the prophesized howling, moaning, and scratching inside the mausoleum. Kay took his poition at the side of the double doors, one hand on the chain lever. The others prepared themselves as best they could. Kay pulled the lever, and the doule mausoleum doors opened. Outwards. The doorway blocked any vision Kay had of the inside, and the rest of the group beheld something horrible. Vampire spawn, made from Finnick’s recently dead ancestors, assaulted the group.
They dispatched the monsters, and decided to take a look in the mausoleum itself. They moved the heavy stone covering Finnick’s eldest ancestor, and saw his hands clasped around a large, black blade. Curious, Kay searched the coffin and found a button on the inside near the head. Attempting to push it, he accidentally brushed the ancestor’s head. Bright white-yellow eyes flared open, and Kay leapt back in surprise. The room grew dark, and the group was swallowed by malevolent darkness and reduced into a fitful sleep.
Upon awakening, the group found themselves in a large, cavernous room. Everything around them was pitch black, save for a 20-foot-radius area about them. Ahead, another light gleamed upon an end table. The table seemed made of black stone and housed what resembled a skull. As they watched, a lit path, shining from the skull-table, wound its way around in the darkness, giving the dimensions an alarming increase. The path wound itself for several hundred feet one way then another, and finally connected to the light in which the heroes stood.
Curious, the group decided to follow the lit path, treading carefully so as not to hit the darkness around them. About halfway through, a huge mural lit itself along the path. Kay searched the mural, and found a button. Unsure of what it did, he allowed curiosity to get the better of him and pressed the button. Nothing seemed to happen, so the group disregarded the mural —which depicted the epic prophecy of the angels and demons battling on the Material Plane for supremacy and dominion.
As they walked, they came upon another mural. This mural depicted the demonic victory. The demons held humans and all races under their command, and the angels’ bones were buried under the layers of dirt. Once again curious about what secrets the mural held, Kay searched it, and found that the pixels that made up the mural had shifted recently.
As he searched the mural, however, the darkness began to grow on the pathway behind them, swallowing the previously lit cobblestone. In a panic, the group ran along the lit path, stopping at one point to catch their breath. The darkness, or, rather, something in the darkness, roared a terrible roar that curdled the blood and made the body shake. It was too much for Duadexa, and the sorceress fell to the ground, in hysterics for fear.
The group was forced to carry her the rest of the way, and they approached the black table with the skull on it. The darkness ceased its creeping, and, with Duadexa under the wing, they looked at the skull.
The skull resembled that of an ancient demon of some old folklore. Kay took the initiative and touched the calcified skull with as much carefulness as he could muster. His hand brushed the bone, and it exploded. The skull parts assembled just out of reach, and began to condense together, forming the body of the seven-and-a-half foot tall beast.
Its eyes began to glow a bright, evil red, and it mimicked perfectly the roar the group had so previously heard.
Panic took them, and the group turned to a newly lit path towards a flight of stairs. Gagaso took Duadexa and managed to get her to snap out of her hysterical state in favor of running away from the source of her fear. The group ran, with the beast on their heels, and came up a flight of stairs that led them right into the mausoleum they had previously been standing.
Now, the group is plagued with terrible nightmares of death and destruction and the end of their lives. Psychologically, the group has a terrible stance, and they fear the beast from the dark more than anything else…

This adventure began with the group’s arrival in Syntharis. They asked around, looking for a reputable inn to stay at. They were pointed to two: The Green Dragon and Otik’s Inn. The two inns were near each other, but both were reputed for different things. Kay and Gagaso continued to ask around, and learned of a third powerful inn in Syntharis. The Dancing Dryad. Each of these inns was known for a different thing.

Otik’s Inn was known for its hospitality, good service, and delicious food.

The Green Dragon was known for its amazing ale, the halfling bards that favored that inn, and for its wild parties.

The Dancing Dryad was known for its moving image of a dryad on the roof, its “services”, and its lavish atmosphere.

The group was torn among these three inns for a full day, asking around and finding people’s personal opinions on them. The adventure’s end was quite abrubt, as Otik’s Inn happened to be the one they chose almost at random.
Otik’s Inn has other qualities, too.
1 It has the amazing spiced potatoes
2 it has service to die for
3 The inn has an atmosphere of home that none could beat.

While at the inn, the group noted a second group of adventurers. This group seemed at home, but were making departure preparations. Kay, curious, decided to listen in and found out about Tanis, Zarco, Eric, and Porthios, the heroes of Daggerfall. Of course, no one had the knowledge to really remember that, but the names rang bells of familiarity with the group.

The adventure ended with Otik’s Inn becoming the main base of operations in Syntharis.

"Kay" "PC" "Corruption"

This adventure began with a simple meeting between Kay and a travelling merchant. The merchant sold him a magical weapon, and offered it for a reduced price if Kay would do something for him. The merchant’s name was Vaenia, and he wanted Kay, and any accomplices he had, to find a way into the duke’s castle and steal a compounding writ of credit. The merchant offered a reduced price and seemed to be deeply rooted in the underground, so Kay agreed.

Having done jobs like this before, though never on this scale, Kay managed to convince Gagaso, Duadexa, and Jesis to accompany him on this mission. Gagaso, with his wolf pets now fully grown, agreed and took two days to train them to dance and yip in as entertaining a fashion as wolves can.

With that, they set out to the duke’s manor. Two guards at the door halted their advance, but were warded off with a successful bluff from Duadexa and Kay. “Oh, we’re entertainers for your lord. He sent a request weeks ago.” Initially the guards were wary, but Gagaso’s dancing wolf routine convinced them, and they were allowed entrance.

Ferried by guards all the way to the lord’s chamber, and guarded the whole while, the group engaged in an ad-hoc routine of comedy mixed with Kay’s interpretive and powerful dance. Gagaso told the story, keeping the lord’s attention as the wolves danced behind him. Kay managed to flip into the rafters of the ceiling, and did a precarious balancing act whilst avoiding notice. As soon as he was above the duke, he dropped behind him and saw the writ of credit on his desk.

Of course, all mishaps happen, and the duke caught Kay in the act of stealing it. In a feat of storytelling soon to be written in the ages by the thieves of the world, Gagaso managed to add that aspect to the story, telling about how a group of adventurers attempted to entertain the lord of a castle while a rogue stole his parchments. The duke and guards bought it, and the show went on. Duadexa created a mirror image of Kay, and set it to attempt to steal something from another desk. While the duke was distracted, Kay managed to get the writ of credit and place a different sheet of paper on the desk of the duke.

The rest of the act went well enough, and they were even paid a bit by the duke for their riveting and almost-real-sounding storytelling. As they left, the duke realized he had been had. Now, he decided, will be the time to increase taxes again. His evil smile came, and he wrote up the document post-haste. As such, the increase in taxes and Gagaso’s recent bankruptcy with his business left the party evicted from their three room home.

The group decided to leave their old hometown, in which they had lived together for over a year, and go to somewhere else to seek their fortunes.

Gagaso, Duadexa, Jesis, Kay

The beginning of the campaign. It all began with Duadexa and Jesis, two friends (Elf and Gnome, respectively) in the tavern. Gagaso, a long time resident, and his roommate, Kay, were there as well.
Kay, drunk and wild, decided to pick a fight with a band of half-orcs. These half-orcs decided to punch back, and get Duadexa and Jesis mixed into the fight. They escaped through the back door of the tavern, masked by Duadexa’s Obscuring Mist Spell. The guards arrived around that time, and the group managed to avoid the harsh and corrupt government’s laws. This time.

The group decided on working together for mutual benefit. Gagaso and his ferrying organization began. He and the group led wayfarers through the wilderness for coin, and made a decent living. This went on for a full year. And as the government became more and more corrupt, the taxes were hightened and Gagaso eventually fell behind. The guards wanted him gone, and so they used the corruption to their advantage and attempted to assassinate him.
This brought his business to the ground, and Gagaso is now laced in debt because of his so-called “Crimes.”